I would like to start this thread just so we can stop using those spoiler tags when discussing in the movies thread!

I have now watched the movie in snippets several more times, and plan to watch it in it's entirety later tonight so I will be glad to discuss further as I have time!

To start it off, I would like to stress that I think this movie is excellent, and the best adaptation thus far of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same title. The first film adaptation was in 1964. That movie was titled The Last Man On Earth and starred Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan (rather than Neville). I watched the majority of it and had a hard time really enjoying it. To be honest, I have a hard time enjoying most movies made that long ago. The quality of film making has risen dramatically over the last couple of decades and only continues to rise.

The second adaptation was 1971's The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston as Dr. Robert Neville. I recently watched this movie as well, and it was much better than The Last Man On Earth, but was still kind of lame. Most of my problem with it is that it was made in 1971 and lacks most of the quality that I'm now spoiled with. By 1971 standards, it was probably a pretty good movie. I like Charlton Heston quite a bit, so it was at least entertaining....

The current adaptation is titled the same as the original book, so that kinda blows my idea about the whole Bob Marley connection and why the film was titled as it is.

That is all for now, but I would love to discuss this movie as much as possible, so somebody please post some ideas! I hesitate to write that I would rather it not turn into a discussion about whether it is a good film or not, because I know there are some users who didn't care for it. I'm not gonna suggest that someone refrain from posting what they thought about it, just know that I would rather this be a thread where people who actually LIKED the movie can discuss the movie without having to defend the quality of the movie or try to convince someone whether it was actually good or not. Let's face it, nobody is gonna convince me it isn't, so I don't expect to convince someone who didn't like it that they should!

I liked Transformers quite a bit too, and it is hard to compare the two. Transformers was more of a work of fiction in my mind. I feel like I Am Legend was based a little bit more in the realm of something that could happen, albeit with a good bit of fantasy mixed in, considering the effects of the virus on certain humans.

I'm not sure which movie was more thought provoking Transformers or I am Legend.

Is that a real question? or are you being sarcastic? (EDIT: Didn't see your second post, before I posted)

I thought Transformers was completely stupid and was not thought provoking what so ever. Not saying it wasn't entertaining.

Sorry if I already broke the rules of this thread, heywoode.

I Am Legend was excellent, but I was hoping it would be even better. I thought it was to short, it could have easily been over 2 hours. I would have liked to see more of Dr. Neville & Sam exploring the city, more of how they lived and the things they did everyday. More interaction between Neville, Anna and Ethan.

One thing that i just wanted to say on the whole grenade note, was that even if he would've used the whole throw the grenade threw the glass routine, its possible that the glass just wouldn't have protected him.

Also, he may not wanted to risk the time of the grenade thrown and the time getting in the chute/passageway thing. Ya know, the cure was in there and he wanted to protect it.

Is that a real question? or are you being sarcastic? (EDIT: Didn't see your second post, before I posted)

I thought Transformers was completely stupid and was not thought provoking what so ever. Not saying it wasn't entertaining.

Sorry if I already broke the rules of this thread, heywoode.

I Am Legend was excellent, but I was hoping it would be even better. I thought it was to short, it could have easily been over 2 hours. I would have liked to see more of Dr. Neville & Sam exploring the city, more of how they lived and the things they did everyday. More interaction between Neville, Anna and Ethan.

No rules, buddy....just common sense....not trying to control anyone's opinions, it's just tedious when people still have to be red about stuff sometimes...even after I asked nicely in the opening post.

For the record, I didn't really think Transformers was stupid, given the context with which I knew the movie was going to be in...It wasn't really thought provoking at all, like you said, but at least it was entertaining...like you said.

I absolutely wish IAL was much longer. Given how much adaptation/deviation from the original movie there already was, I don't really understand why they only chose to come up with 100 minutes of movie.

I would have loved to have seen less of a gap than three years at the start, and much more explanation of how he developed his habits, how he amassed all the stuff he had, how he set up his perimeter defenses, etc....there are just a ton of ways they could have expounded on things while leaving the story line intact...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajbry

For a Canadian, Lip has pretty distinguished movie tastes actually.

Although he's giving "I Am Legend" the same treatment as he did for "American Gangster." They were both decent movies but overly hyped.

I guess I don't watch enough TV...I didn't see that many ads for either one...Haven't seen AG yet, but I love Denzel's skills and I got a dvdscr screener of that too, so it will be consumed pretty soon...

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Bond

One thing that i just wanted to say on the whole grenade note, was that even if he would've used the whole throw the grenade threw the glass routine, its possible that the glass just wouldn't have protected him.

Also, he may not wanted to risk the time of the grenade thrown and the time getting in the chute/passageway thing. Ya know, the cure was in there and he wanted to protect it.

Just a thought.

I think you are probably correct in assuming that he didn't want to risk destroying the cure to save his own life. He knew Anna and Ethan were safe and he knew that he probably couldn't get partly in the coal chute (or whatever it was) and still make the grenade shot through the hole in the glass that I agree was there....he knew he had to keep them (and the cure) safe and take out as many as he could by making sure the grenade went off when and where he wanted it to.

OK, there's a big debate over at imdb.com about whether it was Neville's own trap that snared him or the Alpha Male's trap...it seems split, with maybe a slight edge going to people who thought it was Neville's trap. I still think it was the Alpha Male's plan considering he had seen Neville's trap catch his woman, and had time after it got dark that night to check it out.

It was suggested that Neville moved Fred and used him as bait in another trap, but I don't think a mannequin would've worked as bait long enough to snare anything. He had to use blood in the one that we saw him spring....

Also, just having watched the movie again, right before he blew the grenade, as the Alpha Male was bashing into the glass, it jumped right out at me...The cracks in the glass formed a butterfly shape, and right after that is when he heard his daughter's voice, and then looked back and saw Anna's tattoo of a butterfly. It was the shape of a butterfly in the glass that set that plan in motion, I have no doubt.

I just saw it and loved it. I was a big fan of the book so I had certain expectations going into it. I liked the book better, but I thought that the film had a better ending (yes, I thought the ending was pretty good.) The reason I liked the book better was because it focused more on his everyday survival and rountines. It was cool to read about things like him burning down both houses next to him so the vampires couldn't jump rooftops to get into his home (the perimeter was laced with lights and garlic). And how he would spend alot of his day murduring sleeping vampires and doing his testing. I won't talk too much about the ending of the book for those who haven't read it and are interested, but it's alot different from the movie and could've been better if more detail was given about it. About a quarter of the way into the movie I had to just seperate it from the book into two entirely different stories, otherwise I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.

On the "grenade through the hole" thing, maybe I'm missing something but to me it seemed that the plexiglass was so damaged that it wasn't a problem for Neville to bust right through it and join the Darkseekers on the other side.

On the "grenade through the hole" thing, maybe I'm missing something but to me it seemed that the plexiglass was so damaged that it wasn't a problem for Neville to bust right through it and join the Darkseekers on the other side.

I agree - it looked to me as if he just took the grenade and went for a touchdown style jump across the plexiglass and blew the whole room up...

what I didn't get is now that they had found the cure...how are they going to save 'em?

those creatures in the room with Will Smith didn't look like they wanted to be cured....

considering the numbers of the creatures vs. the immune...they seem rather outnumbered...

would they have to go on a hunting spree and just shoot 'em all up with the anti-virus?

I dunno the ending of this movie bugged me a lot...only because the first hour and 20 minutes of the movie was not bad - i was just expecting a bigger bang than a bomb on hand and some "sign" of butterfly...

It was suggested that Neville moved Fred and used him as bait in another trap, but I don't think a mannequin would've worked as bait long enough to snare anything. He had to use blood in the one that we saw him spring....

Yes, I thought about that also...I don't know what to say other than he was using the mannequin at the end of the dock to draw them in so he could then run them over with the SUV and take a few with him as he gave up and committed suicide. I don't think the mannequin at the dock was meant to bait anything into getting snared, only to lure them toward the end of the dock? Your point is a valid one....

The mannequin Fred was meant to snare, like he used his blood to do before that. I believe that the Alpha Male was more intelligent than the rest of the darkseekers, therefore he could still make the emotional connection with a mate. Also, after Neville snared his mate and left, when it got dark the remainder of the snare trap was still there, and the Alpha Male studied it, figured out what was up, and then set up the Fred trap and had dogs ready in Grand Central because he didn't want to feed on Neville, he wanted to kill him for taking his mate.

The only thing I have a problem with in this theory is that I don't know how the Alpha Male made the connection between Neville and the Fred mannequin. The only thing I can come up with is that Neville was using vinegar to mask his scent as he was snaring the darkseeker and when he returned home. He never used vinegar when he was at the video store, so maybe the Alpha Male tracked some of Neville's spots (especially a spot that he obviously frequented enough to have the mannequins set up to interact with and had gotten to GoodFellas in the DVD library) and figured out that Fred would be good bait that way....It is a stretch, but maybe not...

I just saw it and loved it. I was a big fan of the book so I had certain expectations going into it. I liked the book better, but I thought that the film had a better ending (yes, I thought the ending was pretty good.) The reason I liked the book better was because it focused more on his everyday survival and rountines. It was cool to read about things like him burning down both houses next to him so the vampires couldn't jump rooftops to get into his home (the perimeter was laced with lights and garlic). And how he would spend alot of his day murduring sleeping vampires and doing his testing. I won't talk too much about the ending of the book for those who haven't read it and are interested, but it's alot different from the movie and could've been better if more detail was given about it. About a quarter of the way into the movie I had to just seperate it from the book into two entirely different stories, otherwise I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.

Thanks for adding some info about the book! I am definitely going to read it now, and I appreciate you leaving some stuff out...

I wondered myself why Neville didn't do more killing during the day. The only thing I can think is that he kept saying that he could still fix the world. Maybe he didn't look at them as things needing to be killed, only things needing to be saved.

I also thought this at the beginning when he came in contact with the lion family in Times Square...My immediate thought was that he was pretty well armed....I would've laid the lions to waste and then had the antelope....After considering it, I think he wanted to leave as little of a death footprint as he could given the magnitude of death the world had already endured. His actions throughout the movie certainly reinforced that opinion that he hadn't given up on bringing the world back...until the whole suicide thing....

I don't think he wanted to kill anything he didn't HAVE to kill. I liked that angle of the story more than I think I would the idea of Neville as a vampire slayer like you say the book portrays him, and definitely how The Last Man On Earth portrays him.

I just re-watched the movie so I have seen it twice. It does help that the discussion was going on and that a lot of points were made and things to watch for. Upon watching it again I too was questioning weather the Night Seekers could have set that trap but my gut tells me the movie makers wanted Neville to think that the Night Seekers had lot all thought and human emotion but the taking of the female proved that wrong. When Neville was being chased by the infected dogs why didn't the leader go after him as well? He could have easily had him there and killed him. And I noticed on this time that it was his own knife that went into his leg. The first time I saw it I was unsure of what stabbed him I actually thought it was part of the trap.

I did see the butterfly in the glass that was pointed out, I also saw one in the field while they were getting corn. Obvious that was a theme.

One thing I hadn't noticed the first time was that the basement had a pretty big metal door on it and Neville locked it tight but it took not a moment for them to break right through it but it took like 20 hits to get through the glass. Probably because only the leader was trying to break it down but still in my head I had thought he would have been smarter in building an impenetrable room that no matter what they couldn't get into and I thought the metal door should have been stronger so therefore more time to get into the actual lab. And are we to believe that the Compound 6 was the saving cure with the addition of the ice? I am not being sarcastic I am actually wondering about that.

But I do guess the cold would help to kill the virus because the Free Zone was there due to the virus not being able to with stand the Winter so I guess cold is one thing that would kill the virus or help to at least.

With regards to the stats on the K Virus he said 5.4 Billion people died immediately, 12 million were safe and 588 Million got the virus and turned into the Night Seekers. Just so it it out there. I didn't catch the full stats the first time around. And boy is that a deadly virus. I would hate to clean up all those dead bodies.

I also now more fully understand that Neville had to kill himself because that was the only way the Night Seekers would have stopped trying to get in but they would have been able to smell Anna and the kid in that shoot, Also how was the shoot staying shut and grenade proof?

I do wish the movie had shown how they planned on distributing the vaccine to the Night Seekers because I am curious about that but than Neville would have had to live past the grenade so that Will Smith wouldn't have been dead for the last 30 minutes of the movie.

And on a completely different side note, did anyone else notice the price of gas at $6 something a litre which I thought was funny. And Ethan didnt say a single word the entire movie. The only sound he made was the one that alarmed the Night Seeker and almost got them killed. Good job Ethan.

Well that is my rundown of the second viewing. This movie is available in DVD quality from torrent website and that helps to be able to watch as home with no theatre noise. If you can torrent I would suggest searching for I.Am.Legend.REPACK.DVDSCR.XviD-iMBT it is the DVD with a few watermarks but the Audio and Video are 10/10. Hope to see some continued discussion and now I want to read the book.

I watched the movie again tonight and I downloaded the Audio book of I Am Legend and I plan on listening to i when I get a chance. Still a good movie. I will probably watch it a few more times with different film. I just really liked Will Smith in this one and I wanted to see more of the movie. I could have sat through another hour of content on the spreading of the virus and the spreading of the vaccine.

I watched the movie again tonight and I downloaded the Audio book of I Am Legend and I plan on listening to i when I get a chance. Still a good movie. I will probably watch it a few more times with different film. I just really liked Will Smith in this one and I wanted to see more of the movie. I could have sat through another hour of content on the spreading of the virus and the spreading of the vaccine.

I wondered myself why Neville didn't do more killing during the day. The only thing I can think is that he kept saying that he could still fix the world. Maybe he didn't look at them as things needing to be killed, only things needing to be saved.

In the book the vamps were able to talk and they tormented him at night, so he had plenty of reason to kill during the day even though he was looking for a cure.

Just saw the movie...had been looking forward to it for a very, very long time. I was just infatuated with the story.

Loved the Bob Marley sidestory and the playing of "Three Little Birds" throughout the movie. I really felt connected to Neville throughout the movie, I thought Will Smith did a stellar job. I wasn't really even a fan of his until "Pursuit of Happyness" but since then he has quickly moved up on my list of favorite actors.

This is one of the only movies that has ever made me feel emotionally involved, and I've seen a lot of movies.

I am infatuated for some reason with the environment of a deteriorating city. One huge error I noticed is that all of the flags throughout NY seemed to be in perfect shape. In reality wouldn't all of the flags have been tattered and really, really beat up?

Also the roads in Vermont were suspiciously clear, while the roads in NY were filled with overgrowth.